His Great Gift: Life

Before I write my post for this week, I just want to say that these blogs are my thoughts and many of them come out of my relationship with Him. I by no means want people to read this and think that I know it all. I am a wanderer, in love with life and God and I work from home, so naturally God is my office buddy and my best conversation buddy.

Lots have been happening in the life of the Fouries the last couple of weeks. I stand absolutely amazed, shaking my head now and again, just to make sure I am not in a dream. I do go through the regular preggie stuff, for instance my most recent ones are bad nightmares. I am very strong prophetic and strongly believe not to give evil any attention. While at Bethel, I learned the value of being a good steward and one way is to communicate boundaries. What I found with being the over communicator me, is that many think I am going through a difficult time. Thank you for all the care and prayers, one cannot have enough of them, but seriously, in the midst of all the wonderful things happening in our lives, nightmares are just not welcome.

The nightmares are caused by hormones and information that I expose myself to daily {not stress as many inclined}, so I decided to being a steward of that which is good and are now staying clear of Facebook. South Africa is going through a dark phase, literally, and I can sense the fear amongst my countrymen on Facebook. Facebook, like blogging, is a easy platform to give a bold opinion. You don’t see the reactions of your listeners, which helps you to boldly proclaim your believe system. 🙂

So recently I was faced with one of the debates that are hitting this world like a storm. People turning against each other and getting down right ugly on social media. The Anti-vaccine/ Vaccine movement. I was faced with making a decision regarding this for my child. To prevent another big stir, I will not share my decision online. 🙂 But, I did learn something amazing while going through the process of deciding.

Do not make a decision out of fear but out of faith.

Both these movements preach fear. Yes, both are. The vaccine movement says vaccinate your kid or he/she can die of illness, the anti-vaccinate movement says if you vaccinate your kid, he/she can die of the vaccination. Fear. Making the decision impossible for a first time mom like me with no medical background.

I did what I always do when faced with a decision that is way over my head. I prayed.

One day Stoffel and I went to visit a very dear prophetic friend of ours. She is now in heaven, but back then, we loved spending time with her. Stoffel has always been known for his amazing wisdom. Seriously,he jokes a lot being the clown that he is, but when you do ask him some serious advice, I am always amazed at his insight. He gets it from another world, as we Christians are called by Paul, meaning that the reasoning and how we see this world is not according to this world but according to God’s Kingdom. This lady just confirmed that in us that day, saying that we do stuff according to God’s direction. I do not know of one single BIG decision that wasn’t in communication with God. Sometimes we just hear a small whisper and then out of faith we move. We have always been rewarded. Always.

After my prayer session with God regarding the vaccines later that night, while I was sleeping, God woke me with promises of my life. I was puzzled, as I already heard all those amazing promises before. He then said a remarkable thing: “Linda, this will be fulfilled in your life or in the life of your child.” Then I got my answer. I have to trust God with the life of my baby and make decisions today that will help future Fourie baby. I have to trust the Lord in His word that we will drink poison and not get affected by it. I was reminded of Paul who was bitten by a snake with many other people seeing it happen, to all of their surprise Paul shook the snake off and went on as normal. I was reminded of John G. Lake that went into area filled with the black plaque, not getting sick, in fact when the doctors tested him for the plaque, the virus died in his blood.

I was reminded of Jesus’s words to Peter regarding Temple Tax: “lest we offend them”.Many in this world requires certain things, maybe out of fear. But God is above that. In fact that whole story is one of my favourites:

Mat 17:24 When they had come to Capernaum, those who received the temple tax came to Peter and said, “Does your Teacher not pay the temple tax?”

Mat 17:25 He said, “Yes.” And when he had come into the house, Jesus anticipated him, saying, “What do you think, Simon? From whom do the kings of the earth take customs or taxes, from their sons or from strangers?”

Mat 17:26 Peter said to Him, “From strangers.” Jesus said to him, “Then the sons are free. Mat 17:27“Nevertheless, lest we offend them, go to the sea, cast in a hook, and take the fish that comes up first. And when you have opened its mouth, you will find a piece of money,take that and give it to them for Me and you.”

Last night I was listening to a sermon when the preacher mentioned another miracle that was hidden in the scriptures, yet not. 🙂 This is why I love the Bible, there are truly amazing little mind boggling things in there, grasping hold of your faith and breathing life into it. It was the story of the woman caught in adultery. He was in the temple, about to teach, when the Pharisees, the teachers of the law, came in and brought with them a woman caught in adultery. They quoted the Law which states that she must be stoned. Then Jesus bent down and started writing in the ground with His finger. And He looked at them saying, “If any of you is without sin, may he cast the first stone.” One by one, they went away , the older ones first. Jesus then told the woman that He also doesn’t condemn her either. Here is the beauty: Jesus was in the temple. The temple floors were made out of cobbled stone. Jesus wrote in stone like Moses the first Law giver. He was stating that He is the Law Giver!! Isn’t this just amazing remarkable?!

I was so blown away that I had to go study it for myself!

Friends, I end with this: No matter what circumstances life throws at you, no matter what lies the enemy comes and tells you, Jesus is the ultimate Truth. His ways are above the ways of the world, yet He recognises the world. There were many things in His in time on earth were He honoured the culture. One such miracle is His first one, where He turned the water into wine. It was not His time yet, but the culture and His mother was honoured by Him. Don’t let fear drive you in any circumstances. He is truly above it. Be the salt of this earth.

ps My baby has a huge calling on his/her life and I will respect it, therefor we have made a decision regarding vaccines.